District 2 Pomona City Councilwoman Adriana Robledo will not be seeking re-election. Tomas Ursua had filed to paperwork to vie for her seat in the November election, but he wasn’t deemed eligible for the ballot.

A former Pomona councilman and current planning commissioner is asking a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to pre-empt the city clerk’s decision to disqualify his candidacy for the City Council election in November.

Tomás Ursúa claims he’s being discriminated against because of his politics — he’s a critic of the current council — and will be in court Thursday morning, seeking to get his name on the ballot alongside District 2 candidates Jacqueline Elizalde and Victor Preciado.

The city contends Ursúa was deemed ineligible because his change of address didn’t become effective until Aug. 17, two days past the deadline.

The nomination period for District 2 was extended from Aug. 10 to Aug. 15 after the incumbent, Councilwoman Adriana Robledo, decided not to run for re-election.

After pulling nomination papers Aug. 8, Ursúa filled out his candidacy forms Aug. 15, and he was informed he had unofficially qualified. On Aug. 23, however, interim City Clerk Marie Macias sent Ursúa an email overriding the initial determination.

“The L.A. County Clerk Registrar Recorder’s Office informed us today that they had received your California Voter Registration Form. They indicated that your address change did not become effective until Aug. 17, 2018, the date which the form was received in their office,” Macias wrote.

Ursúa blames the City Clerk’s Office.

Ursúa said he contacted the City Clerk’s Office on Aug. 7 and announced his intention to go to City Hall and file paperwork, but was informed the city clerk was unavailable. He made an appointment for the following day. When asked if he was registered to vote in District 2, Ursúa told the city employee he had not updated his current address and would take care of that when he came in.

That next day, Ursúa went to City Hall and filled out the voter registration application and the forms to receive City Council nominating papers. He left the change-of-address paperwork for his voter registration in the hands of the city.

He acknowledged it was close to the filing deadline but referred to advice he received in 2012, when the then-city clerk told him to fill out the voter registration form simultaneously while pulling papers for his unsuccessful bid for mayor, “as that created a verified voter registration on that day, as opposed to taking a chance that there would be problems in sending it through the mail,” he said.

He said the city’s Aug. 23 letter included a copy of his voter registration form, which he said showed a postmark date of Aug. 15.

Ursúa said he didn’t mail the voter registration form himself because he believed the City Clerk’s Office would be faster in getting to the county.

“I could have driven to Norwalk to file this thing,” he said.

Ursúa, who served on the council from 1989 to 1993, has run in four other council races in the last 10 years — sometimes needing to file address changes — without incident.

Ursúa said he moved back into his District 2 town home in the 1100 block of Grand Avenue in March. He has owned the five-unit complex since 1988 but acknowledged he hasn’t moved into his unit, which is currently occupied by a tenant, even though he sent an eviction notice back in December.

In that letter, a copy of which was provided to this news group, Ursúa told the tenant he was planning to move back into what is called the owner’s unit because of a significant upcoming rehabilitation project on the property and that he was also planning to run for the District 2 council seat. He gave the tenant until Aug. 1 to move out.

He said he now lives in another of the five units.

Resident Ron Vander Molen doesn’t believe Ursúa lives at either town home, adding an acquaintance went to the property and no one could verify that he lived there.

Vander Molen, who supports District 2 candidate Preciado, said he began to question Ursúa’s residency when he recused himself from an Aug. 8 Planning Commission discussion on the zoning near Fairplex, which is in District 6. Vander Molen said if Ursúa didn’t live in District 6 at that time, then he wouldn’t have had to recuse himself.

But Ursúa said he owns property 500 feet within the so-called F-zone, and at the suggestion of the city attorney, he didn’t vote on the issue.

Although Vander Molen lives in District 6 — whose council seat is not up for grabs this year — he believes his involvement this year is important because November’s elections will seat council members who ultimately make decisions that impact everyone, regardless of district.

“I’ve known Ursúa and his shenanigans for 30 years. This is not unexpected from my point,” he said. “This is all kinds of nonsense, and I want to see the city getting away from this.”

As of now, Ursúa lives in one of the other units on the District 2 property, and is letting a male acquaintance stay there with him, as he rehabilitates the units, he said.

“My intent was always to come back,” he said. “They call me a carpetbagger on social media. That’s just an attempt to discredit me.”

The current planning commissioner said he’s being targeted because he’s the only candidate to criticize the city’s current administration.

Despite the dustup, Ursúa said he is confident the courts will overturn the Pomona city clerk’s decision, citing a 2006 case involving then-Pomona councilman Dan Rodriguez.

In that case, then-City Clerk Macias — who is serving as interim city clerk now while the city searches for a new one — determined some signatures were invalid, leaving Rodriguez two signatures short of the needed 20. But two of the signatures were from residents who had mailed their voter registration forms and were in transit, according to a Sept. 6, 2006, article in this publication.

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An attorney for the Pomona residents asked the court to order the city clerk and the county clerk to validate the signatures. The judge eventually agreed, and Rodriguez was added to the 2006 ballot, according to the 2006 article. He lost his seat to current Councilwoman Cristina Carrizosa.

“We feel we have law on our side,” Ursúa said by phone Wednesday morning, nearly 12 years to the date of the Rodriguez case. “The question is if a judge will agree and we prevail.”

Liset Márquez covers the cities of Pomona, Claremont, La Verne and San Dimas for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. A beat reporter for the Bulletin since 2006, she previously wrote for the Chattanooga Times Free Press. She keeps a watchful eye on city councils and the Dodgers.